


I Swear Sometimes That Man is Out to Get Me

by BlastHardcheese



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-02
Updated: 2014-03-02
Packaged: 2018-01-14 01:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1248193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlastHardcheese/pseuds/BlastHardcheese
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will Graham's TA is 100% done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Swear Sometimes That Man is Out to Get Me

**Author's Note:**

> This started off as a ficlet based on a joke someone made in a livestream for the 13 Hour Devour and grew to cover all of first season. I don't know how I feel about it, but here it is.
> 
> Also I have no idea how to tag this.

Louis O’Sullivan came to Quantico all bright-eyed and bushytailed from a pleasant police job in a sleepy town in Wisconsin. At first, the prospect of being the teaching assistant for a lauded criminal profiler had been so appealing. While he had a slight aversion to public speaking, he supposed it wouldn’t be too bad. Mostly grading papers and leading a few discussion topics. At any rate, the opportunity seemed too good to be true. Over the next few months he discovered it was.

\---

"I just went over a few basic things while you were gone..." Louis flipped open his spiral notebook that was already full to bursting with extra papers crammed into it. The cover was barely still attached. This probably said a lot about him to someone like his boss.

"Basic things?" Will Graham asked skeptically. Louis looked up from his notebook. He made eye contact but Graham's eyes were fixed to a point over Louis’s shoulder. Louis cautiously offered his notebook but Graham waved it away with a vague gesture. 

“I just thought since you didn’t really leave instructions of what I should go over I’d just review some serial killer basics because I thought it’d be relevant. Terminology, common behavior patterns, stuff like that.” Graham wasn’t responding. Louis was starting to get used to their rather one sided conversations. When he had started doing this he would fill their long pauses with nervous chatter. Graham probably thought he was an idiot, though Louis wasn’t sure he even cared enough to have an opinion of his TA. 

Graham seemed to suddenly realize Louis was still standing next to him. “That was good thinking, thank you.” He held up a small stack of papers. “Can you please make 40 copies?” Louis took the papers, careful not to make any contact. During the first week he had grabbed something Graham was handing him and kind of awkwardly half-stroked his fingers. It was horrible. To make matters worse, earlier that same week Graham caught him singing along quietly to “9 to 5” on his headphones. After those two interactions he hadn’t wanted to come back.

In his glamorous but short career as a teaching assistant Louis had already spent at least 7 whole hours in the copy room. He set the machine on its merry way and pulled out his phone to text Adelita Restrepo, the only friend he had managed to make over the course of the last month and a half. She was a year younger than him and fresh from a crime lab in New York.

_280 pages today. I’ll probably be late for lunch._

_Shit. Graham must really hate trees. I hope it’s about something interesting._ She responded immediately

_Psychoanalysis. I’m asleep already._

_Laaaaaaaaame. Well hurry up. I don’t want to end up sitting with Squires and fucking Raymundo. It’s on you if I end up punching one of them in the dick._

\---

“I’m about to run _another_ one of Graham’s classes. I’ll probably just let them out early. They’ll be fine with it. I‘m pretty sure they all hate me,” Louis said, not trying to hold in his exasperation. He could not wait until this case ended.

Adelita made a face. “Where is he anyway?”

“Minnesota. But he’s not answering his phone or email. I don’t know.” Louis shook his head. “I mean, I thought it would be exciting to work with him but it’s just sort of…weird and awkward.”

“Hey. At least he’s hot. All of my professors are hideous dorks.” She thought for a moment. “Actually, there’s McCormick. She’s pretty dreamy.”

Louis laughed mirthlessly. “Uh huh. Well, I’ve got to go waste everybody’s time on a useless review session.”

Adelita pursed her lips and nodded slowly in approval. “Yeah, that’s the spirit.”

\---

By the end of the week he had still heard nothing from Graham. Thankfully Dr. Bloom showed up to fill in. She expertly skirted around the subject of the missing professor’s whereabouts.

“Dude. I heard he shot someone,” Adelita told him when Louis caught up with her on the skeet shooting range.

“What!? No way. No. Way.” Louis gaped at her. “Who told you that?”

“Just some talk I’ve heard around the range today.” She shrugged, cradling her rifle in her arms. “Didn’t you say he was working on some serial killer case in Minnesota?”

“Yeah, but. Graham shooting someone? He can’t even look me in the eye.”

Adelita squinted at him through her safety glasses. “See? He sounds a little crazy.”

“Hey. Who’s training to be the behavioral expert here?” Louis put his hands on his hips indignantly. “Furthermore, why are you out here? What does skeet shooting have to do with forensic science?”

“Everything.” 

\---

Louis leaned against the wall outside of Graham’s classroom. Things couldn’t be easy, could they? He could have just had a brief word and then gone on to the shooting range, but no. Dr. Bloom and Jack Crawford had to come swanning in the second class was over. _Don’t mind me, just trying to help everyone get an education here. For fuck’s sake._

He checked his watch. The noise in the hallway died down and he could hear their voices through the open door. He didn’t really want to be eavesdropping and certainly didn’t want to be caught doing it. But what the hell. Someone--Crawford--mentioned a psychological evaluation. For Graham? Uh oh. He definitely needed to not be listening in on this conversation.

Louis had managed to inch a bit down the hall before Graham came striding out of the room. He stopped when he saw Louis. “O’Sullivan. I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch.”

“It’s no problem.” _Lie._ “And I’m sorry about the applause. I would have told them not to do that before you came back. That you probably wouldn’t like it. What do you need me to do for your next class?” Louis was fumbling in his bag for a pen and when he looked up Graham was kind of smiling at him.

When he told Adelita about this new phenomenon she laughed and asked, “So do you think he’s going to ask you to prom?”

\---  
Louis had come to keep Adelita company at the gym since it was pretty much empty. He was sitting on the floor grading tests. 

“How’s all that going?” she asked, pausing for a water break.

“Oh, it’s okay. They aren’t too stupid. But I mean it is a little distracting when other people keep barging in at the end of class and stand there waiting until Graham’s done and then monopolize all his time. I mean, what if someone had a question to ask him after class? What if I needed to talk to him? Nope.” Louis sighed. “The other day some freaky looking dude came in with Crawford. Next thing I know, Graham’s gone again.” 

His phone made a little alert jingle. _What fresh hell is this?_ An email. From Graham. _Great._ He read the email once and then again just to make sure he had read it correctly. 

Adelita raised an eyebrow in synch with a bicep curl. “What is it?”

“So you know how he went back to Minnesota and wasn’t supposed to miss more than one class?” Louis held up his phone dramatically. “Somebody else got murdered and now he’s not sure when he’s coming back.”

She looked disbelieving. “Really? Are you sure he’s not just making shit up so you do all the work and he gets his nice salary?”

Louis sighed and banged his head slowly on an exercise bench. “Uhg. And Bloom’s up there too. What am I supposed to do? How are any of us supposed to learn anything?”

“Maybe you should ask him that when he gets back.”

He put on a determined face. “Yeah. Maybe I will.” His face fell immediately as he turned to her. “I’m not going to do that.”

She looked immensely disappointed.

“I can’t stand this job. It’s bleeding over into my dreams and it’s so goddamn boring. I’m always sitting in the back of the room, which is empty, typing notes and Graham’s just talking about whatever my subconscious has dug up from the recesses of my mind and showing slides. The other night it was Pokemon. Will Graham was telling me about attributes of different Pokemon and showing me slides of Gyarados. I--I don’t even know.” He buried his face in his hands, defeated.

\---

“What’s happened now?”

“Well everything _was_ fine. I mean, aside from the fact that Graham was definitely covering material I went over while he was away a week or two ago. I swear that man just goes deaf when I start talking. It’s maddening.

“Anyway, all of a sudden out of nowhere, like a bad penny, here comes Jack Crawford barging in, halfway through the class. He’s yelling that class is dismissed and everyone needs to get out. ‘Let’s go!’ And I’m not at my little TA station, I’m in the front of the room so I had to just leave. I had a Coke back there that I wanted to get but oh well! Never mind!” Louis threw up his hands. “Not to mention that I never got the discussion questions I’m supposed to go over in the next class. I swear I’m going to go crazy.”

Adelita kindly offered him her lit cigarette.

\---

A couple days later he caught up with Graham. He was going to make a comment about Crawford always barging into the classroom but before he could say anything Graham handed him some papers.

“Can you make twenty copies of each of these and have them on my desk by 5 o’clock?” He asked it like a question, but it wasn’t one.

Louis robotically took the papers from Graham, who took this as confirmation and walked off. 

“You’re the worst,” is what he wanted to say.

Instead he just said “Bye,” to the empty air.

\---

Things had actually normalized. It was weird. For a few weeks Graham was there for pretty much every class. If he wasn’t there he had arranged for Dr. Bloom to lecture in his place. He was looking a little haggard to Louis, though. One day he even ventured to ask Graham how things were going.

“Fine,” Graham responded as he rubbed his eyes underneath this glasses. “I just haven’t been sleeping well.” There was a lengthy pause. “How are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m--I’m doing okay,” Louis replied trying to not sound as caught off guard as he was. Looking at Graham now he felt kind of bad for all the complaining he had done over the past months. “You know. If you’d like to take a day off, I can run class.” _Why are you volunteering for this, fuckwit._

“Thank you, but I think I can manage.” Graham gave him a tight lipped smile that was not reassuring at all.

\---

One day after class Louis stayed to discuss the grading rubric for an upcoming test. Graham seemed normalish. He asked Louis if he’d turn the lights down.

“Like, how they are for class when you show slides?” 

Graham nodded.

Louis did so and then stood there awkwardly. Graham sat on the edge of his desk. Louis waited for him to say something for a good thirty seconds before clearing his throat. “Um. Do you want me to go?”

“I’m just going to sit here for a minute,” Graham said calmly.

“Okay,” Louis responded with a skeptical drawl. He picked up his bag and quietly left, taking a look back at Graham when he reached the door. He looked totally lost in thought. 

_What the fuck ever, dude,_ Louis thought.

Later that day Graham called and haphazardly asked him what he had said about the grading. Louis recounted their whole exchange.

“Sorry. I’ve been a little off recently.” 

_Just recently?_ “It’s fine. I’m sure you’ll feel better once you aren’t staring at a totem pole bodies all the time.”

“One would hope,” Graham replied with just a tiny hint of humor in his voice.

\---

Louis decided that it was getting late, but he might as well call Graham and update him on his progress with the big midterm tests. Graham answered almost immediately.

“Just so you know, I’ve gotten everything but the essays graded. I might need to go over some those with you tomorrow,” he said.

“Do you know where I am?” Graham asked cautiously.

 _Is this a quiz?_ “Um. Delaware?” No response. “Are you still there, Professor Graham?”

“Yes. I, uh, need to go find someone.” He sounded small and disoriented.

“It’s pretty late. Maybe you should get some sleep, sir,” Louis said, trying to remain calm and measured. _Maybe he’s drunk. Maybe he’s been drunk this whole time. That would explain a lot._

“All the skin on her arm came off.”

 _What._ “Pardon?”

“I have to go.” The line went dead.

 _Should I call the police?_ Louis stared at his phone. _But I’m the police._

He’d give Graham the benefit of the doubt. He didn’t know why. Honestly, as long as he didn’t kill anyone and kept coming to class, Louis was okay with them having a few incoherent interactions.

\---

At the beginning of the week Graham had handed some handwritten information to Louis to type up that make no sense. There was just kind of a jumble of letters every now and then. 

“Are you serious about me transcribing this?“ Louis asked him 

“Of course,” Graham replied bemused.

“Really?”

Graham furrowed his brows and stared at Louis. “Is there a problem?”

_This must be some sort of prank, or at least Graham’s version of a prank. He’s not very good at this._

“No. No problem, sir. I’ll get that all typed up,” Louis replied, probably a bit too sarcastically. Graham looked befuddled. 

Before their next class met Graham had shot some escaped psychopathic killer in the head and was in the hospital.

\---

Louis’s phone rang. He groped for its bright light in the darkness. Who the fuck-- he thought, but he already had a hunch who was calling him in the middle of the night.

“Hello?”

“O’Sullivan?”

“Professor Graham?” 

Silence. 

“What can I help you with?” Louis tried to not sound pissed off, but it was really hard.

“We’re actually having a conversation now.” It was a statement, but he could tell Graham wasn’t entirely sure.

“Yeah. Are you still in the hospital?” 

“Yes,” Graham responded. Well, at least he was sure about that. But if he was in the hospital then it was really unlikely he was drunk dialing Louis. So not a mostly functioning alcoholic? There went that theory.

“Good. Now, what’s going on?” Louis wondered if he should call someone, like Dr. Bloom and tell her about this conversation once it was over.

“I’m not coming to class this week,” Graham said in a measured tone.

 _Are you fucking kidding me._ “Is that really what you called to tell me?”

“Yes. Sorry I didn’t think you’d answer your phone,” Graham sounded lucid now. Completely normal. Louis felt like something was off, but he was still so groggy he might be imagining it.

“No. No, it’s okay. Uh. I’ll probably ask Dr. Bloom if she can fill in. I’m kind of burned out after these past few months.”

“Me too,” Graham replied. On his end of the conversation Louis rolled his eyes. After a moment Graham continued, “Sorry for waking you. I’ll be in touch.”

 _I’m sure._ “See you soon,” Louis replied and hung up. He lay in bed awake until the sun came up. By that point it was pointless. He got up and made coffee.

_Fucking Will Graham._

\---

“So.”

“So.”

Adelita and Louis sat on a low wall smoking. 

“What do you do?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Class has been cancelled for now. So at least I don’t have to worry about that,” he said. He still kind of couldn’t believe he had been TAing for a serial killer.

Louis took a last drag on his cigarette and exhaled slowly. “God, I hate this job.”


End file.
